Cannot boot into fog menu in UEFI mode

[Charlee593]

I have trouble booting into the fog menu in UEFI mode. It boots into a prompt asking for tftpboot server. After inputing the fog server ip address, it tries to connect the default file, but then it time out and go back to the boot manager.

I set option 67 to ‘ipxe.efi’.
I’m running the lastest fog pull from svn.
Also I tried snp.efi and snponly.efi.

Please can someone tell me what is happening. Thanks

[Tom Elliott]

I was made aware of this issue earlier but I do not know what is causing it.

What version (specifically) of FOG are you using?

I can try to revert the iPXE scripts a bit that handle the embedded functionality of the efi files, but there’s a separate underlying issue at play here.

[Charlee593]

@Tom-Elliott Thanks for the super fast reply. I re-setup the fog server earlier today with the one in svn (Revision 4304), I believe it is fog 1.2.0.

[george1421]

On the fog console page there is a cloud, what are the numbers on the lower right?

The reason why I ask is that svn 4304 is somewhat old (in svn terms). I think the current SVN is in the 523x range. IF you are running 4304 there have been many great improvements since the svn you installed.

[Sebastian Roth]

@george1421 There are two different version numbers. One is if you check out via SVN (currently 4305, see here: http://sourceforge.net/p/freeghost/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/) and the other one is GIT (5257 at the moment, the number you see in the cloud!). The source is in sync but version numbers aren’t as sourceforge was offline for a while a few months back.
@Tom-Elliott Should we work towards abandoning sourceforge SVN all together? It can be pretty confusing to people being new to FOG.

@Charlee593 We have been playing with the boot script embedded into the iPXE binary lately. Good to see that others are testing this as well. Seams like we haven’t got it all perfect yet. Even inputting the TFTP server won’t work in your case because iPXE does not try to get an IP via DHCP. Please give us a day or two. Thanks for reporting.

@Tom-Elliott

• First: From what I can read between the lines and what I found out playing with this lately. I am pretty sure using the ‘ifopen’ check is not doing a good job anymore (newer iPXE source). I’ve tried this in different machines (BIOS, UEFI, VM) and it always returns OK even when IP information is not available from the earlier PXE ROM (like on my UEFI machine and probably Charlee’s too!). So this check is pretty useless from my point of view. A better check might be isset ${net0/ip} && ifopen || dhcp ... I guess but haven’t tried it out yet.
• Second: As I see BIOS and EFI script is now the same - which is a good idea I think. But how do we remember to always make and test changes in both?? Better to only have one and reference it from both?
• Third: Typo at the end ofline three: gotosetserv should be goto setserv I reckon.
• Fourth: I am pretty sure I forgot something…

[george1421]

@Sebastian-Roth I agree, it seems a bit confusing to have two different version numbers. Hopefully there is a way to resync the numbers.

[Charlee593]

@Tom-Elliott
Thanks for fixing the fog menu. Now it loads to the fog menu. But it has trouble registering the device. After selecting the “Quick Registration” option on the fog menu, it stuck on ‘/init.xz’, like the image below.

• Running on: Fog Project version 5283 (pull from github)
• Kept the option 67 to ‘ipxe.efi’ (Also tried snponly.efi and snponly.efi, same result)

[Wayne Workman]

@Charlee593 What is the make/model of the device? Are you using a USB ethernet adapter?

[Charlee593]

@Wayne-Workman

• Lenovo ThinkPad T430s and Dell Latitude E6540
• I’m using the Ethernet port from the laptop

I have more available laptops to test on, which one do you have that is working?

[Wayne Workman]

@Charlee593 said:

T430s

verified working on 2015-06-24 using undionly.kpxe
https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/WorkingDevices

Are you purposely trying to UEFI boot? Have you not tried to put the laptops into legacy mode, or turn legacy option ROM support on?

[Tom Elliott]

@Charlee593 Can you try some of the other .efi files, for example, try the snp.efi, or snponly.efi.

Or you can try the adapter (if it’s intel or realtek) efi file so (intel.efi or realtek.efi).

[Sebastian Roth]

@Wayne-Workman said:

Are you purposely trying to UEFI boot? Have you not tried to put the laptops into legacy mode, or turn legacy option ROM support on?

Definitely a good point. But shouldn’t we be working towards better UEFI support in FOG?

@Charlee593 There is a setting to enable kernel debug output on the console for booting. Please enable KERNEL_DEBUG and crank up the LOGLEVEL in your FOG Settings (FOG Boot Settings) to 7. Hope we see more messages than just this.

[Wayne Workman]

@Sebastian-Roth said:

Definitely a good point. But shouldn’t we be working towards better UEFI support in FOG?

100% agree, but I had to ask.

[Sebastian Roth]

@Tom-Elliott He already tried snp.efi and snponly.efi. Do you really think that iPXE is having an issue that can be fixed by using a different binary? Kernel and init ram disk are being loaded. So NIC capability in iPXE is definitely fine…

[Tom Elliott]

@Sebastian-Roth It’s not always about the nic capability, but rather the memory segment to be used to load the init/kernel.

That said, of course there’s always the possibility that it’s loading is just taking a while. Not everything is instant. So how long are these sitting there?

[Charlee593]

Thanks for the replies.
@Wayne-Workman said:

Are you purposely trying to UEFI boot? Have you not tried to put the laptops into legacy mode, or turn legacy option ROM support on?

We are purposely trying UEFI boot, the software that we are testing require window 8 or 10 in UEFI mode. We tried legacy mode and it works.

@Sebastian-Roth said:

There is a setting to enable kernel debug output on the console for booting. Please enable KERNEL_DEBUG and crank up the LOGLEVEL in your FOG Settings (FOG Boot Settings) to 7. Hope we see more messages than just this.

We set it to 7 and it show no more than previous message, no difference.

@Tom-Elliott said:

Can you try some of the other .efi files, for example, try the snp.efi, or snponly.efi.
I tried snp.efi, snponly.efi, intel.efi this time, they all stuck on “init.xz”

@Tom-Elliott said:

That said, of course there’s always the possibility that it’s loading is just taking a while. Not everything is instant. So how long are these sitting there?

It sit on the “init.xz” for around 5 minutes then it goes back to the boot manager of the laptop. Then I check the fog manager, no host has been registered.

[Sebastian Roth]

Debug enabled (DEBUG=image) ipxe.efi binary to try: ipxe.efi

[Sebastian Roth]

Might this change have anything to do with it?? http://sourceforge.net/p/freeghost/code/4302/tree//trunk/src/ipxe/src-efi/config/general.h?diff=4031

I kind of doubt it but it still jumped at me when I looked through the recent changes on ipxe in our code.

The binary I compiled is without those defines…

[Tom Elliott]

I suppose it could, I can remove it and try again.

[Charlee593]

It is able to register the device now. I reinstalled the fog server and run Sebastian’s ‘ipxe.efi’. Running Fog version 5291. Thanks for the help